Explore England's Past

Pixton Park

Pixton Park in its woodland setting on a hill high above the river Barle

After the The First World War life at houses like Pixton Park still centred round hunting and house parties. In the 1930s there were up to eighteen indoor servants at Pixton Park, later reduced to eight, four gardeners, a carpenter, and grooms. Unless the Herberts were at their villa in Portofino there would be guests or shooting parties most weekends, driven to and from the station. Hilaire Belloc was a regular visitor and once set his bed alight by smoking.

Content generated during research for the paperback book 'Exmoor: The making of an English Upland' (ISBN 13 : 978-1-86077-597-0 ) for the England's Past for Everyone series